High winds create treacherous driving conditions on Ottawa-area roads

Provincial and municipal police said rapidly changing weather in the Ottawa-area Sunday is to blame for a number of crashes and partial closure of major highways.

Ontario Provincial Police closed Highway 417 between Boundary Road and the Quebec border for four hours due to high winds and a multi-vehicle collision.

Some motorists said the closure was “frustrating.”

“I just drove for 2.5 hours,” said Lindsay Miller, who was trying to get to Montreal. “I'm probably going to have to turn around and double all the way back up north, up back through Ottawa.”

“The winds were heavy, yup, but the roads were pretty clear up to here,” said driver Darrin Hughson.

Police asked drivers to exercise “extreme caution” if they absolutely had to drive.

“We had a flash freeze, lots of winds, limited visibility and that just caused lots of problems out on the roadways mostly in the rural areas where there's open spaces,” said Sgt. Mike Murphy with Ottawa police.

Within city limits, Leitrim Road between Bowesville Road and Limebank Road, as well as Eagleson Road between Fallowfield Road and Perth Street were closed but have since re-opened.

Camp Fortune was forced to close due to high winds.

Hydro One reported multiple outages across our viewing region throughout Sunday. Many flights both in and out of the Ottawa airport were delayed.

Police said this day should serve as a reminder for motorists to drive cautiously all the time and not just when the conditions and visibility are poor.